Ninja reveals cancer diagnosis aged 32
YouTube: ESPNStreamer Tyler ‘Ninja’ Blevins has been diagnosed with skin cancer, confirming his melanoma diagnosis in a social media post.
On March 26, Blevins, who is 32 years old, announced his diagnosis on X/Twitter, saying he’s “in a bit of shock”.
His wife, Jessica Blevins had “pro-actively” booked a dermatologist checkup, and a mole on the bottom of his foot was identified.
A sample of the skin was tested, and Ninja stated “it came back as melanoma”, a type of skin cancer.
“A few weeks ago I went in to a dermatologist for an annual skin/mole check that Jess proactively scheduled for me. There was a mole on the bottom of my foot that they wanted to remove just to be careful. It came back as melanoma, but they are optimistic that we caught it in the early stages.”
Another dark spot was also found next to the mole, which doctors biopsied in the hopes that the cancer was fully removed. Further testing is required to see if the area is now noncancerous.
“I had another dark spot appear near it, so today they biopsied that and removed a larger area around the melanoma with the hopes that under the microscope they will see clear non-melanoma edges and we will know we got it. I’m grateful to have hope in finding this early, but please take this as a PSA to get skin checkups.”
Blevins explained that his melanoma was caught in the “early stages,” and urged his followers to make sure to get their skin checked regularly.
Fellow content creators have sent messages of support to Ninja. “Glad you caught it early,” said Twitch streamer DansGaming. “This very procedure would have saved my mom’s life if they caught it early enough.”
Fortnite star SypherPK said, “Hoping for the best. Lots of love to Jess for being proactive as well.”
Jake’n’Bake, another Twitch streamer, responded, “Thanks for keeping people aware! And hopes everything was able to be removed without further issues.”
Ninja is the most followed-streamer on Twitch, his primary streaming platform, but he now multi-streams on all platforms, after ending his exclusivity deal with the Amazon-owned website.